Creating a Family Home: The Gift of Time for Mother’s Day

All I wanted for Mother’s Day was time. Time with my family, and time by myself to do some of the things I wanted to do alone. My husband and son gave me the time I needed and I had a wonderful weekend. I hope you mamas out there did, too.

I spent part of Saturday morning at an annual local plant sale, a special tradition for a friend and me to go to together. It’s special because of our long friendship and the fact that we’ve been meeting up at the sale for six consecutive years, but also because these aren’t ordinary plants—they’re divisions from our gardening “neighbors,” and we often find things you can’t find at a typical garden center. It would have been fun to include Nathan, but I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on all the plants—or indulge in the plant-induced stupor as my friend calls it—if he had come with me.

I found coral bells, astilbes, lily of the valley, a pink bleeding heart and a hosta for my shade garden and phlox for my kitchen garden. I used restraint and only bought plants I have room for and spent just $18 on all these plants. This is a special sale, my friends.

Bleeding Heart and Hosta

Lily of the Valley

And, of course, I got to catch up with my friend. Who told me about a yard sale a few minutes down the road with some good crafting finds. She also gave me a little Nathan-sized desk chair that she picked up at the yard sale, which was actually a free yard sale. I don’t know what you call a yard sale where everything is free, but it was like a yard sale. Only free.

So I hightailed it down the road and picked up some little grapevine wreaths and found another, non-free yard sale where I got an old, matching desk for the little chair for just two dollars. Two dollars! It has some water damage and it’s coming apart a little, but I’m confident I can repair and refinish the pair, or at least sand and paint them this summer. I also nabbed a bookcase for $2 to put in my bedroom to solve the persistent more-books-than-shelf-space problem.

All this, and I came home just in time to play with measuring cups and wooden spoons in the kitchen and have lunch with Nathan.

On Sunday I planted seeds in my new cutting garden and bought herbs and perennials for my kitchen garden—while my husband vacuumed, did laundry and made me an amazing dinner. It was the perfect weekend, and it leaves me wondering why Mother’s Day doesn’t happen more often. Once a month would be nice.